UCLA basketball: Coach Steve Alford denies his teams are slow

UCLA guard Jordan Adams certainly was not slow to assess USC on Monday.

Trojans Coach Andy Enfield stopped a team scrimmage last week and admonished his players by saying, “If you want to play slow, go to UCLA.”

Enfield and UCLA Coach Steve Alford brushed that off at Pac-12 media day Thursday. But Adams had a thought Monday.

“If that is his team’s motivation, to have our name in his mouth, then I guess he has to use it,” Adams said. “I know we’re over here playing our game, worrying about us and getting ready for our season.”

Asked if any of his teams had been called slow before, Alford pointed out that his New Mexico teams were "one or two in the Mountain West” in scoring.

Alford said that he and Enfield have no problems. But as to the UCLA-USC rivalry, Alford said, “I know that there is a rivalry. You got the two Pac-12 schools in the same town. I understand that.”

But, he said, “do I understand that there is still a big difference in the basketball side of it? Yeah, I think there is still a big difference there.”

Difference?

“You look at history and tradition, UCLA and USC, there is quite a bit of difference there,” Alford said.